"In the words of Francis of Assisi as he met Brother Dominic on the road to Umbria, hi." –Brennan Manning

Today we pause to remember

On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall, bringing untold amounts of damage to New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.

The day before was a Sunday. It was a sunny day, if a little hot, here in Atlanta. The evening was a beautiful, delightfully balmy late August evening. It was completely surreal to be here under those conditions, knowing that only a few hours away an epic storm was on the way, bringing with it untold amounts of death and destruction.

Sure enough, the storm proved to be just as bad as feared, though it seemed that New Orleans had escaped the worst of it. The next day, reports surfaced that one of the levees had breached and that almost the entire city was under several feet of water.

In the days that followed, the media was overwhelmed with ghastly images and stories coming out of New Orleans. Stories of violence and looting throughout the city; stories of horrific conditions faced by people unable to leave the city who had sought refuge at the Superdome; stories of horrifically bungled responses by the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, and other political leaders.

It has now been six years since that horrible day. New leadership is in place in both the city and the state of Louisiana. The city continues to rebuild slowly but surely, though many areas remain very badly damaged.

And here we are again: it is Monday, and another major hurricane is approaching another major city. This past weekend was beautiful, if a little hot, here in Atlanta, while elsewhere another major city faces the prospect of untold amounts of death and destruction headed its way.